The pages of this diary are full of meeting dates and notes about council life.

It was used by Amrit Devesar. He was the Labour councillor for Bensham Manor Ward, Thornton Heath.

Amrit didn't like the posh leather cover.He felt that a simpler diary would cost the public less.

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Councillor Amrit Prakesh Devesar

Amrit was a Labour candidate in the 1971 council elections:

"While we were canvassing I knocked at a house and a lady cameand I gave my usual patter. And she said, 'Well, Mr Devesar, you speak very good English. The two Conservative canvassers have been going around telling that the Labour party have picked up an Asian candidate who can't even speak English'.

I said, 'That's interesting, now you judge for yourself'. Here you must give credit to the fairness of the British people, they don't like people being misrepresented. So I think there might have been a backlash and in the end I did win.

I paid a heavy price for being a councillor. Because of the committee meetings and then the party meetings I used to come home very, very late; 10, 11, 12. And that was the time my children were growing up. I felt that helping them with their studies, their homework, that suffered."

"If one is working in one's job, it is physically impossible to read all the various committee papers we received in the post. In hindsight, I don't know how many councillors

can do justice to the job."

Becoming a Councillor

Amrit Prakesh Devesar was elected in 1971. It was the first time that the Labour party had won the Bensham Manor Ward in Thornton Heath.

Amrit broke through in another way too. He was Croydon's first Asian councillor. He had to fight a lot of racial prejudice to get elected.

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